1 of 8
2 of 8
3 of 8
4 of 8
5 of 8
6 of 8
7 of 8
8 of 8
Who knew ink could say so much about a guy?
By Byron Kerman
Photographs Sarah Carmody
Jason Stubblefield has lost count of how many tattoos he has, but at the ripe age of 26, he’s already been getting tattooed for about 10 years—and he’s running out of room. An apprentice tattooist himself, he labors at University City’s All Star Tattoo and is looking forward to the Old School Tattoo Expo at the City Museum (November 9–11), where, he says, “tattooists from all over the world get together and trade flash and tattoos.”
Front and center
The shoulder-to-shoulder tat represents six months of work, at $100 an hour. “I just said, ‘Gimme a chest piece with some black roses and skulls,’” Stubblefield says matter-of-factly.
< Throat of confidence
“That was done by my friend Henrik, who’s from Gothenburg, Sweden,” Stubblefield says of the that-had-to-hurt piece under his chin. “I didn’t have any money, so I traded him some books and a painting I did for it.”
Up to his neck >
Stubblefield went to Kansas City to have his friend and fellow artist Scott Schickman add this and its matching counterpart on the other side of his neck. “I just rode my motorcycle out there, had it done, and rode back,” he says. “The bandage was flapping in the wind the whole way back.”
Cash in flight
“Easy come, easy go,” he says of money. “Sometimes you spend it as fast as you earn it.”
Mama’s boy >
“I got this one for my mom when I was 18,” he says. “I didn’t get my mom anything for Valentine’s Day, so I just got her this tattoo, and it worked out.”
< Never forget
The small mouse commemorates a friend and fellow tattooist who passed away a year and a half ago; a bunch of the All Star crew have one. “It was an old design in the shop that we all agreed on, instead of a name and a date,” Stubblefield says. “You don ’t have to explain this, but you know what you got it for.”
Neighborly love >
A fan of tattoo legend Sailor Jerry (who mentored Ed Hardy), Stubblefield went to his boss and asked for something in the artist’s style: “He handed me a book, and this was the first one I saw.”
< Knuckle up
All it takes are eight letters to sum up Stubblefield’s approach to life: “Won’t give in, won’t give up,” he says of himself.
